8. Testing The MSI MS-1029 And It's Turion ML-42 Processor

The MS-1029 has a 64 bit Turion ML-42 processor. It can run Windows XP Pro X64, Windows XP Pro X32 or Windows XP Home Edition X32. From tests done in the Turion article cited earlier, we already have some idea how 32 bit apps perform on XP Home Edition.

What I want to know is how 64 bit applications might perform under Windows XP Pro X64 and how 32 bit versions of the same applications might perform under XP Pro X64's WOW64 32 bit emulation. I also want to know if there is any difference in performance when 32 bit applications are run under WOW64 or XP Pro X32 on the MS-1029's 64 bit processor or on a notebook with a 32 bit processor. Based on this information and the other information I presented earlier it should be possible to decide if now is the time for a switch to mobile X64 architecture or at least AMD's 64 bit architecture. And, yes, I know there are other operating systems such as Linux. One at a time, please.

Asking questions is easy. Answering them is not always so easy. There are precious few 32 bit applications that have also been rewritten and compiled for 64 bit environments. So, it's not like I can just pick your favorite app or benchmarks and try them out in all four of the XP computing environments I mentioned in the last paragraph.

After searching far and wide, I settled on a Windows-based test suite called "Performance Test v6" from PassMark Software in Australia. PTv6 comes in both a real 64 bit version and a real 32 bit version. Thus you can do performance comparisons between XP Pro X64, X64 with WOW64 32 bit emulation and XP Pro X32 on 64 and 32 bit processors. Click here for more on PassMark Software and Performance Test v6.

The About window of the 64 bit version of Performance Test v6

The About window of the 32 bit version of Performance Test v6

I did a fair amount of research to assure that this test suite has credibility. However, this is the first time I have used it and as with all experimentation, I'll be the first to tell you that there could be something better out there. If you know of anything, please let me know. I'll check it out and run and report some tests if it looks good. Right now when it comes to measuring 64 bit performance under Windows we're a little bit like any group facing a new, unknown environment. We have to put out probes, see what happens and come to some consensus on what we have seen and what we know.

After all of the Performance Test v6 benchmark tests complete the program displays the PassMark Score, an overall rating of the tested computer and its operating system.